October 5, 2016
OMG I got a hug from my son today. He. Initiated. It. Last night after I completed the whole protocol for the first time. Coincidence?? Doubtful.
Update: October 21, 2016
OMG! I’m in speech therapy with Chance.
TOTALLY DIFFERENT KID!!!!
Ok…my son had the attention span of a flea…literally. Today he sat with Catherine Coleman, engaged, kept eye contact and even started a conversation (via sign language) which she brilliantly ran with and wove speech and cognition into. He answered questions, followed directions, all while he was exhausted (apnea). He had impulse control than I’ve ever seen before. Then the speech…really coming along. He has severe apraxia and is now saying the first and last sound of a word I.e. P _ G not just “p” like we’ve heard for years. And the “words” are coming unprompted!!
Then at home the miracles continued! He woke up from his nap a cuddly, affectionate little boy that wanted his mama. He cuddled with me. AHHHHHHH!!!!! Before he was very independent and elusive.
And all of this comes one day after I completed my third round of the whole protocol. Soooo happy!
Update: October 22, 2016
I’m not sure what I saw tonight. Am I seeing things? Making things up??
My son was always in his own world stimming. Today he was in the bath and I started singing a silly, made up song that would cause him to follow directions. And honestly I did it to entertain myself because I’m exhausted but needed to stay awake. I’m very used to being ignored by him..especially at bath time. The song…
Arms up
Arms up
Over head
Arms down
Arms down
touch your toes…
When I suddenly realized he was NOT facing me but facing the wall of the shower and DOING EVERYTHING I SAID. Huh!?! Auditory processing??
When I stopped he signed “again”. He wanted more!
Then I start cleaning something and he was playing with his toys with a little more purpose than usual. He loves to make animals talk to each other. (Thank you Catherine Coleman) I said “Hello Mr Duck, I’m Mr Dinosaur.” Again, NOT looking at me he pauses to “think/process” then chooses the duck and dinosaur from his pile of bath toys.
Then, as I’m talking In different voices for each one HE MOVED THE CORRECT ONE ACCORDING TO MY VOICE (high pitched for the duck, deep for the dinosaur)
THEN I asked for a hug right before bed and he gave me one with no hesitation (a very quick one).
Where am I?
Update: December 1, 2016
I’m seeing so many wonderful changes 3 months into the laser and I keep saying I’ll write tomorrow…but it keeps getting pushed back. I’m using the laser on myself and detoxing a lot so I feel rotten. But my boy, Chance, is amazing me. More unprompted speech, less aggression, he cuddles with me at night (yes Andi Durkin!!!) when he used to sit clear across the bed as far away as possible. Now he’s right next to me, head on my shoulder even! My husband and I were on our bed with Chance and he suddenly gave my husband a kiss then turned to me and gave me his cheek so I could kiss him. WOW!
He’s showing pride in his work from school. I showed a friend a turkey he made at school and he had a huge smile of pride and recognition on his face (which was enough of a big deal). Then…he took it out of my hand and handed it to her as if saying, “Look what I did!!” I have NEVER seen him do anything like that before.
I kid you not; I went into the kitchen sobbing tears of joy. He’s IN THERE. He’s REALLY in there!
I love all of you and feel blessed to be part of this amazing community!
Update: December 7, 2016
I am Chance’s private Speech Pathologist. I have been using the PROMPT program with Chance along with visual cues. He has shown a big jump over the last few months since the laser treatments have been started. He is now able to demonstrate improved jaw and tongue control with improved productions of consonant vowel, vowel consonant and cons-vowel-cons productions. He also is showing improvements in movements requiring protrusion, rounding and retraction with lip and tongue control. Additionally, he is producing longer signed utterances demonstrating a jump in expressive language.